This invention relates to a ladder attachment and more particularly to a stand off brace or stabilizer for use in connection with a standard ladder for positioning the ladder away from the work surface and increasing the effective ladder width to increase stabilization thereof and to prevent the ladder from coming in direct contact with the supporting surface, namely, the wall of the building, whether such wall is a straight wall or a corner thereof.
There are numerous ladder braces or stabilizers presently in use and contemplated which present structures such that when the brace is attached to the ladder, the ladder in its use position is outwardly spaced from the supporting wall such as of a house or other building as when maintenance such as cleaning or painting is being performed. The main idea of these braces is to provide a wider stabilizing contact surface than the ladder would normally provide and also to position the ladder a greater distance away from the supporting surface so that people will not have to lean backwards a greater extent than is safe as when cleaning gutters or reaching wall areas to work upon.
Representative of such prior art devices are those shown in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,814 issued Jun. 16, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,790 issued Jun. 10, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,218 issued Jan. 8, 1963; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,006 issued Apr. 8, 1952. These devices generally either rely upon removable extensions to convert the braces from flat wall to corner wall use thus complicating their structure or utilize the ladder rungs as the area to which attachment between the brace and ladder is accomplished. Attachment to ladder rungs can conceivably interfere with the user's hand grasping such a rung for support during ladder use and inherently provides point attachment which is less strong and rigid than spaced lateral attachment such as by attachment to the laterally-spaced ladder rails. Also in those prior art devices which allow for attachment to the laterally-spaced rails, such is done in a single plane where the contact between the central brace portion and the rails is a face to face point contact which can lead to slippage or require an unnecessarily tight attachment mechanism.
Accordingly there remains a need for a stabilizing brace which can operate on both flat and corner wall surfaces and which avoids the above-indicated shortcomings of the prior art and yet which is easily manufactured, straightforward to use and of a rigid, safe construction.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by a stand off brace for a ladder having first and second side rails laterally-spaced comprising a rigid elongated frame having a pair of generally equal length first legs forwardly outwardly extending from each other so as to define a generally V-shaped central section and a pair of generally equal length legs outwardly inwardly extending from said first legs and in turn terminating in ends adapted to contact a vertically oriented wall at laterally-spaced points thereon so as to support the ladder at an outwardly spaced operational position with respect to said wall, said frame central portion adapted to extend between said ladder rails and project into and beyond the vertical plane defined thereby in said operational position with said first legs contacting said rails, and means for fixedly attaching said first legs to said rails in said position.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.